Ah, you're all too smart !

Or too well travelled, or too something....

THIS, as many of you guessed is an electric mosquito zapper, just like a handheld version of the blue light things you see in butchers' shops and kitchens. It's great fun to use as it gives a very satisfying spark and sizzle when you make contact with the offending creature. (It is not a rice strainer as suggsted in one email !)

There are two main mosquito-borne diseases in this part of the world - malaria and Dengue fever. There is currently no malaria on Bali (or so I am told) but there have been some recent cases of Dengue fever. I won't put you off your morning coffee with a rundown of the symptoms but if you want to read more, click HERE. The main risk of being bitten by the Aedes mosquito (which is the main carrier) is in early morning and late afternoon - apparently it does not generally feed at night although patterns are constantly changing in response to changes in the environment. When we move to Flores, the risk of Dengue fever will remain high but we will have the added pleasure of having to deal with the Anopheles mosquito (the principal vector of malaria). These beasties feed mainly at night so it looks like about midday is the only safe time.

While you can take drugs (as I am already) to prevent malaria (or at least reduce the risk), there is no way of preventing or curing dengue fever, other than avoiding mosquito bites, which is hard to do. Therefore, a mosquito net and a supply of insect repellent containing at least 50% DEET is an essential part of a traveller's luggage in this part of the world. I think I may be requesting some top up supplies from home in due course as it is not available here.
Last night I soaked my mosquito net (provided by VSO) in permethrin, which gives some added protection and will kill mosquitos and their eggs. As West Timor is a malarial area, I plan on taking my net and a ball of string when we go there on Thursday for the Volunteer Conference and will attempt to hang it over my bed wherever we are staying. This will be my first time using it so I'll report back on how easy it is to manage. It looks like a huge tangled jumble of polyester net so I suspect that it will take some wrestling to sort out !

Thanks for the comments about the new layout (both of you). I'll stick with the new one for a while, until I get bored with it as well.

Lastly, your bahasa Indonesia lessons start today and lesson one will cover greetings : greetings here vary depending on the time of day (just as in English - good morning, good afternoon, etc.). All greetings start with selamat (which means safe)and are then followed by pagi (morning), siang (afternoon), sore (evening) or malam (night). Pronounciations : pagi has a hard g and i is as "ee", sore is pronounced as soray, the other two are as they look.

Now, go and do your homework and selamat malam !

Yes, you are in the right place !

I got tired of that orange look so have changed to a different template. What do you think ? Comments below, please...

A weekend off !

This is the local market at the end of Jalan Intaran, where I am staying in the Sanur district of Denpasar (Jalan = street). This traditional market gets going at about 5 am every morning and is in full flow when I leave the house for my language school at about 6.50 am. I believe that everyone has packed up and gone by about 8 am. In the photo, you can see schoolchildren on their way to the local school (all in uniform), and lots of fruit and vegetables for sale. One of the high volume items is small baskets (about 3 inches square) made from woven banana leaves which are used for offerings for the gods. The lady with her back to the camera on the left in a white top and navy jeans has a bundle of them in her right hand. These offerings (usually containing a little rice or other food and some flowers or petals) are placed everywhere in Bali – at street junctions, at the small temples in houses, outside houses on the footpath and are replaced a few times a day. Unfortunately, the food they contain is usually snaffled by the hordes of roaming dogs which seem to be everywhere. The other thing that you can see is huge election posters - Indonesia has two sets of elections this year : presidential elections in June and local elections in April. The local elections (as far as I can understand) are a new development and this is the first time that Indonesians will have the chance to choose local representatives in a formal election. From looking at the posters which seem to be asking people to give their second vote to one of the candidates, it appears as if they are going to be using some form of Single Transferable Vote which should be, eh, interesting for a first election. I have asked Pak Agung to explain how the system works but didn’t get very far which leads me to suspect that if he hasn’t got a grasp of it, then the chance of other less well educated citizens understanding the system is very slim indeed. Watch out for the spoiled vote count ! Two of the local candidates (cousins but standing for different parties) live on Jalan Intaran (my street) so the place is festooned with flags, banners and posters.

I will post more on the presidential election in the coming weeks - the current president is SBY (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) and is known as Mr. Clean in recognition of his efforts to clean up the endemic corruption which blights Indonesia at every level. Two of the candidates opposing SBY’s re-election (I believe that there may be as many as 30 or 40) are military officers (SBY is also a former army general) associated with the former Soeharto regime so have a tainted past in the eyes of many.

As I write this, it is 7.30 am on Saturday morning (things start early here !) and I’m looking forward to a weekend with no school (unlike the kids in the photo who have school six days a week). We’ve just completed our first week at IALF, the language school in Denpasar, and I am going to have to spend some time this weekend doing homework and learning some of the growing vocabulary lists we have been given. It’s shaping up to be a very hot day with a clear blue sky and the temperature is already almost 30 degrees so I will probably stay indoors until late afternoon apart from a visit to the air-conditioned internet shop to browse Saturday’s Irish Times online and catch up on the latest gloom from home. Later this afternoon I hope to go the beach at Sanur for a swim with some of the other volunteers who have also been lent bicycles by VSO. All this is assuming that it stays dry, which is far from guaranteed – it hasn’t rained since Thursday so we are overdue another downpour.

The language course has been going quite well – everybody in the class is progressing at more or less the same rate and everyone is doing their homework so nobody is getting left behind. Our teacher, Pak Yudi, is a young man who also teaches English to Indonesian students and like all good teachers, has limitless patience. So far, we have struggled through such areas as personal introductions, family relationships, jobs, food, drink, countries, numbers, dates and times. The rewarding part is when I can pick out a word or two when I eavesdrop on two Indonesians speaking to each other in a shop or on a bemo.

On Thursday afternoon, I had the opportunity to practice my Indonesian and help two local girls with their English. Ibu Agung (Mrs. Agung) helps a number of local children with their homework after school and Silvianita and Okiani (named after October, the month in which she was born) were keen to show off their extensive English vocabulary to me so I am looking forward to practicing with them again on Sunday afternoon. I think that talking to nine year olds is enough of a challenge at the moment !

Here are the two smiling students :

One week down, ?? to go

Here's a shot of the VSO office staff at the welcome party hosted by Anne Wuijts (towards the back left wearing a purple top) at her house last week.

It’s now Tuesday night, and I’ve just got my back to my homestay on the bicycle that I’ve borrowed from VSO and which I suspect Ujang, the office driver and general Mr. Fix It, spent a portion of his own time at the weekend getting ready for me to use. It’s slightly too small, the saddle is a little too low and it has no mudguards or lights but the most important thing is, the brakes work well !

Yesterday morning we started our language classes and Pak Agung kindly delivered me to IALF (the language school) on the back of his motorbike. The bike gave an ominous “crack” as I sat on the back and I immediately had to get off while the suspension and spokes were checked and I was interrogated about my weight – not a good start ! Anyway, we got going again, and in between hanging on to him as we trundled along (for a brief period going the wrong way against the flow of traffic on the inside lane of the busy dual carriageway Denpasar bypass) and trying to remember the left and right turns, I was delivered to the school with an hour to spare before we started class. On our first day we had a different teacher to our regular one and spent the class dealing with introductions - I am from Ireland, I am living in Sanur, etc. Along the way we are picking up lots of cultural tips – for example, as with most Asian cultures, age brings respect here and it is quite in order to ask people their age without knowing them particularly well, even older women. Marital status is also usually discussed at the first encounter and when asked “are you married”, the answer is either “I’m married already” or “not yet” – you never say “no” !

On Monday afternoon, I tried to make my way back to the office by bemo (requiring two separate trips) but gave up after getting the first bemo in the wrong place and ended up getting a taksi for the last part of the trip – the taksi driver had no idea of where my destination was and had to be gently reminded to turn off the meter after twenty minutes of wandering around. Even still the fare was Rp25,000 (about €1.40) and it was worth it for the air conditioning alone. I picked up my bike and got some directions back to my homestay from Juli, who lives in an enormous house just across the street from me and made my way home from the office withou getting lost (about 20 minutes). Last night (after doing my homework, with plenty of assistance from Pak Agung), I set off to do a practice run for the first part of my trip to school today. It was a good thing I did, as I would have been very late this morning otherwise !

This morning, I left for day two of school after breakfast at about 6.50 am, and arrived at about 7.25 am, having missed one turn and added some extra time to my journey. Tomorrow should be quicker but it’s a bit of a trade off between leaving later, travelling faster and arriving in a lather of sweat, or going earlier and travelling at the same speed as the locals - even at that time of the morning, the heat is approaching 30 degrees and the roads are teeming with traffic, mostly motorbikes. Hardly anyone seems to use pedal cycles here.

Cycling here is an interesting experience, strangely the time when you need to be most careful is when approaching a junction at which you have the right of way. Joining motorbikes just sweep around the corner in a gently merging tide and the continuing traffic slows down and parts to let them in which can be very frustrating on a pedal cycle when you have to sacrifice some hard fought momentum to let a load of motorbikes join in !

Just as I arrived back home this evening (having been at the VSO office after school for more of our induction and some free internet) the heavens opened again and there is now a fabulous thunder and lightning show taking place. Hopefully, this will clear before the morning as I have no way of getting to school other than on my trusty steed ! In fact, I hope it stops even sooner than that so I can head up the road to a local warung for some makan malam (dinner) and maybe a visit to the internet shop to post this update.

Tomorrow, we have a political briefing in the afternoon after language class, which should be interesting. The place is festooned with posters and flags from candidates in the local elections which don’t take place until sometime in April so I’m looking forward to learning more about that.

Finally, this is my host, Bapak Agung, on the left,and his wife Ibu Agung on the right.

Apa ini ?

Ok, it's time for a little competition - what is this, or in Bahasa Indonesia, apa ini ?

It’s about the same size as a tennis racket but it isn’t. Each of us was given one of these by VSO shortly after we arrived and it has come in quite handy already.

Post your suggestions as a comment below – I’ll post the answer in a few days.

Living in Sanur

The yard at Bapak Agung's house taken from the front porch of my house - note the temple in the centre of the photo.
When it rains here, it really rains ! The rainy season runs form approximately November to March - by the time I start in Flores, it will be dry and very dusty.

Bringing the shopping home.

Pics at last !

Our first few days were spent in a simple hotel in the Sanur area of Denpasar - a traditional Balinese style house with an unprepossessing street presence (looked like a garage entrance) which then open up into a large area with lots of greenery, separate buildings, shady covered areas (when it rains here in the rainy season it really rains and when the suns shines it's really hot). This picture (above) is looking from our room along the passageway past the entrance to a few separate bedrooms which are to the right.
Indonesia is a predominately Muslim country, however Bali is mainly Hindu and the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur or NTT, where Flores is, is 95% Christian. Every Balinese home has a number of temples which symbolise the three way relationship that us mere mortals have with the gods, with our surroundings and with the earth. These temples are small, but very ornate, constructions of wood and stone and offerings are placed in front of them every day, usually with some incense. This is a small temple that was right outside our bedroom door at our first stay in Sanur.On Friday night, we moved into our family homestay (at least everyone else did, I am in a temporary house owned by my homestay owner until some other people move out of my room today, Saturday). My homestay is on Jalan Intaran (jalan = street) in the Sanur region, slightly east of the VSO office and Denpasar city centre. My host got things off to a good start by hiding all my luggage in a wardrobe and pretending that it hadn't been delivered - he knew about my baggage problems earlier this week and is a bit of a practical joker. This morning (Saturday) I am just wandering around trying to get my bearings and have already found a local internet shop, from where I am posting this.

This is the junction at the top of Jalan Intaran, at a very quiet time on Saturday morning.

Bagless in Bali

So, having left Dublin slightly late in the gently falling snow, made it through Heathrow just in he nick of time to catch my flight to Doha, changed planes with no time at all to spare in Doha and stopped off in Kuala Lumpur for an hour, I arrived in Denpasar, Bali at about 1800 hrs local time on Monday (1000 Irish time). Unfortunately, my bags did not. I suspect that they never made the tight connection and the switch from T1 to T3 in Heathrow. However, on a positive note, I was paged as soon as we disembarked and was told that my luggage was delayed by 48 hours which is a lot better for the confidence (if not the hygiene) than finding out the hard way as you are the last passenger watching an empty carousel going around and around.

In London I met Peter, a fellow VSO volunteer who is going to the same placement as me in Maumere and, by a strange coincidence, worked with my brother-in-law in Stranraer many years ago. On arrival in Bali we were met by an existing volunteer and a VSO staff member who brought us to our small hotel, which will be our home for the next four nights. Our first full day (Tuesday) was a relaxing one, occupied by buying SIM cards, finding local shops, etc. and on Wednesday we were taken to the VSO office for the first day of our induction. That night we all went to the home of Anne, VSO’s country director in Indonesia, for a welcome party where we met the hosts in whose homes we will be staying for six weeks from the end of this week. My host has good English and a huge sense of humour and I think will make this a very interesting experience. He told me that his wife speaks no English so I will starve unless I learn Bahasa Indonesia very quickly ! I’ve promised to teach him a few words of Irish while I’m there.

Thursday & Friday will also be taken up by various induction programmes – introductions to the VSO staff and to VSO’s programmes in Indonesia, etc. On Friday we move in with our homestay families and on Monday next we start our six week language course so there’s a busy time ahead. Some photos shortly, I promise - I realise that word only posts are very boring !

STOP PRESS : 9am THURSDAY : I have been reunited with my luggage !

Another airport..

When I received my passport and visa for Indonesia back from London (just in time too, they were delayed by the more or less complete shutdown of London in the snow on Monday & Tuesday), I was pleasantly surprised to see that my baggage allowance for the sectors from London to Denpasar was a generous 35kgs. Apparently I’m travelling on a missionary ticket - the airlines only issue these to registered charities and they have a more generous baggage allowance than regular economy tickets and less stringent cancellation and amendment policies. However, this surprise was dampened a little when I saw that my allowance for the Dublin – London sector of my journey was a miserly 20kgs ! However, after a couple of calls to BMI’s call centre on Friday afternoon, they kindly agreed to amend the allowance on my ticket to the higher limit for the first flight also. So, I’ve left my car behind, checked in, disposed of two large bags which I hope to see again in Bali tomorrow and am now looking out of the window in the departures area at a completely white apron and runway as a light dusting of snow falls. This is of some concern to me as Dublin Airport does not seem to have a great history of dealing well with the white stuff and, in fact, the airport was closed by snow for some hours last Thursday afternoon, resulting in over 170 flights being either diverted or cancelled. As I have just 90 minutes between flights in Heathrow and have to get from T1 to T3 in that time, I can’t afford any delays on this leg ! The airport is very busy (but rather subdued) with lots of despondent French rugby supporters who are still reeling from the shock of yesterday’s defeat in Croke Park. What a great start to the season - even Hooky seemed to enjoy it despite himself !

I’m going to post this shortly so (assuming that the snow doesn’t interfere) this will be my last post from recession struck Europe for quite a while. The next update should come from nice warm Denpasar sometime later this week. However, just as I was about to click “POST” there was an announcement about a cancelled flight due to “adverse weather”. Fingers crossed..

In the meantime, while I’m gone please all do your bit for the country, stop saving and get out there and start spending – there are plenty of empty seats in restaurants (at least the ones that are still open although I noted that Café Bar Deli in Bray closed its doors for the last time yesterday) and there are some good deals to be had ! It’s a great time to buy a second hand car too. Hopefully by the time I get back¸ between you, you’ll have sorted it all out and the place will be flying again......

A busy week

I’ve now been back home for about a week and a half and it’s been kinda busy.... I spent five days of last week in Birmingham attending a VSO training course. This course rejoices in the title of SKWID (Skills for Working in Development – VSO are better at acronyms than any other organisation I have come across) and represents stage 2 in the training process. Stage 3 is in-country training which is, not surprisingly, delivered on arrival in your placement country (Indonesia in my case).
The SKWID course takes place in VSO’s residential training centre at Harborne Hall in Birmingham and takes the form of four challenging days. The session kicked off with a Health & Security workshop which included a medical briefing on such pleasant matters as malaria, Dengue Fever and Giardia (look it up, I won’t explain it here), as well as advice on personal safety and security, water filtration and food hygiene in tropical countries. The SKWID course itself was attended by 17 volunteers, all of whom are preparing to head off for such far flung parts as Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, and a number of African countries. There were two couples on the course, including one of who are bravely bringing their eighteen month daughter with them to Cameroon. While we were there, a number of us were interviewed by the Independent on Sunday about the reasons why we had volunteered the interviews appeared in a big spread with accompanying photo – click HERE to read the article online.

The workshops we attended during the training course focused on topics as diverse as the identification and analysis of stakeholders, work on various forms of participatory approaches, facilitation of meetings and workshops (without using laptops and Powerpoint !) and many other useful subjects. I found it to be a great opportunity to meet other people (including two other Irish volunteers) who are in a similar situation to me and are asking the same sort of questions about their placements that I am.

So, (assuming that my passport arrives back from London in time !) next Sunday will see me dragging myself back to Dublin Airport for the last time in quite a while. I fly via London and Doha and arrive in Denpasar (on the island of Bali) on Monday afternoon local time. Then it will be straight down to language training – we will have classroom sessions from 0800 to 1230 five days a week, plus some additional sessions on cultural training and VSO’s procedures and structures in Indonesia. At the end of the first week, I will be moving in with a family in near Denpasar and will stay with them for the remainder of the training so that should be really interesting.

This week, it's been great to get some emails from other VSO volunteers already in Maumere who have given me some idea of what to expect when I arrive on Flores. I was especially pleased to hear that the hospital has wireless internet access !

Now I'm off to do some more shredding and sorting....

So.... "what exactly have you been doing ?"

It’s now just seven months since I left my “permanent” and pensionable employment without much of an idea of what was coming next. Maybe it’s time for a little review.....what exactly have I done ?

Well, apart from lots of sailing....

I did some lazing around.........

I travelled to Malaysia on a container ship......

I visited Singapore, Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne..........

I sailed around the Whitsunday Islands..............

I sailed around the islands of the Andaman Sea in Thailand............

I spent two weeks on Koh Lanta and in Bangkok............

And of course, there were a few beers along the way ...........


However, in the middle of all that idleness, the one constructive thing I did manage to do (and the one which is going to have the biggest influence on the next bit of my life) was applying to become a VSO volunteer. I’m still not 100% sure of exactly what my motivations were on the day when I decided to do this, but the die is now cast and I’m very much on the critical path to departure to Indonesia next Sunday.

Watch this space for more...